WASHINGTON: President-elect Donald Trump on Monday held a wide-ranging news conference in which he said he would preserve access to the polio vaccine but equivocated on other vaccines, pledged to look at bringing down the costs of pharmaceuticals and expressed doubts that his daughter-in-law might be Florida’s next senator.
Trump held forth for over an hour, the first time he took questions from reporters since winning the election. The event harkens back to his long-winding news conferences from his first term and is a stark contrast from President Joe Biden, who doesn’t often take questions from reporters.
Here’s a look at some of what he touched on:
Trump provides some assurances on polio vaccine
Trump defended his choice for health secretary, prominent vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but said he personally is a “big believer” in the polio vaccine and would preserve access to it.
“You’re not going to lose the polio vaccine,” he said. “That’s not going to happen.”
Over the weekend, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had polio as a child, spoke out in defense of the polio vaccine after a recent report disclosed that one of Kennedy’s advisers filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022.
Kennedy has long advanced the debunked idea that vaccines cause autism. Trump seemed to question whether there’s a link, saying “We’re looking to find out,” and remarked on the rising cases of autism being diagnosed.
“There’s something wrong, and we’re going to find out about it,” he said.
There are no blood or biological tests for autism; instead, a doctor bases the diagnosis on a child’s behavior. While the autism diagnosis has been available for at least 80 years, the definition gradually expanded to include milder cases, which are more common. A study last year found that about a quarter of kids with autism — about 110,000 in the US — have the most severe version of the developmental disability, which has left them unable to speak or with an IQ below 50 or both.
Of Kennedy, “He’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” he said. “I think he’s got a very open mind, or I wouldn’t have put him there.”
Trump blames middlemen for high price of pharmaceutical drugs
Trump described a dinner he had this month with Kennedy; Dr. Mehmet Oz, a celebrity heart surgeon turned talk show host and lifestyle guru whom he’s tapped to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services; and top pharmaceutical executives in which they discussed drug prices.
Trump heaped praise on the companies — the same ones that Kennedy has routinely argued profit off of Americans unfairly — but said the high cost of health care was a focus of their dinner.
“What came out of that meeting is that we’re paying far too much,” Trump said.
Trump also hit pharmaceutical benefits managers, calling them “horrible middlemen” who drive up the cost of drugs. Pharmaceutical companies have been aggressively lobbying Congress to restrict the role of pharmaceutical benefit managers, which help health insurance companies’ biggest clients decide how and what prescription drugs will be covered in their insurance plans.
“I don’t know who these middlemen are, but they are rich as hell,” Trump said.
Trump’s appearance is a clear break from Biden’s style
The press conference was Trump’s most extensive public appearance since his victory six weeks ago — a rare absence from the public stage for the former reality star.
But it also underscored how even while president-elect, Trump has seized the spotlight from Biden, who still has a month left on his term in office. Biden has not held a press conference in months and has had a limited public schedule.
While Trump was addressing some of the top-of-mind issues of the day — including sightings of drones flying over the Northeast — Biden himself has been silent, leaving it to aides to try to calm the public.
‘I don’t know’ if Lara Trump will be a senator
Trump seemed skeptical that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would appoint his daughter-in-law to be a Florida senator, taking the seat held by Marco Rubio, who has been nominated for secretary of state.
Asked whether he expected DeSantis to name Lara Trump to replace Rubio, Trump said, “I probably don’t, but I don’t know.” Trump recently spoke with DeSantis at a memorial for Florida law enforcement officers.
Trump’s allies have been pushing DeSantis to nominate Lara Trump, who is married to Trump’s son, Eric, and served as co-chair of the Republican National Committee this year.
“Ron’s doing a good job with his choice,” Trump said, without elaborating.
He lavished praise on Lara Trump, including for her work at the RNC, where part of her duties involved focusing on “election integrity,” a priority of Trump’s after he falsely claimed fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Trump open to intervening in potential TikTok ban
Trump indicated he would look at intervening in the potential ban of TikTok in the US The popular social media platform must cut ties with its China-based parent company or be banned by mid-January under a federal law.
He didn’t offer specifics, but Trump credited the platform with helping him win the election. His campaign saw it as a bridge to reach younger, less politically engaged voters, particularly when clips circulated showing him with celebrities at UFC fights.
“We’ll take a look at TikTok,” he said. “You know, I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”
Trump tried to ban TikTok during his first term but changed his mind and pledged to “save” TikTok. Once he takes office, his Justice Department would be tasked with enforcing the new federal law against TikTok.
Trump on Monday was meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Chew at his Mar-a-Lago club, according to two people familiar with the president-elect’s plans who were not authorized to speak publicly about them and spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
’Everybody wants to be my friend,’ he says
Trump noted the differences between the first time he was to take office eight years ago and today, saying executives now want to meet with him.
He said they were “hostile” back then.
“Everybody was fighting me,” he said about his first term. “This term, everybody wants to be my friend. I don’t know. My personality changed or something.”
While he left office in 2021 ostracized and angry, Trump has had a stunning turnaround leading to his election win. Last week, he was honored by being named Time magazine’s Person of the Year and ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
His meeting with the TikTok executive was part of a string of meetings he’s had with Silicon Valley billionaires and other technology leaders since becoming president-elect. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google CEO Sundar Pichai have all flown to Trump’s club to meet with him.
He revealed Monday that he had also met with Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos will meet with him this week, Trump said.
“We have a lot of great executives coming in — the top executives, the top bankers, they’re all calling,” he said. “It’s like a complete opposite from the first one.”
Trump already returning to world stage
With multiple wars going on, Trump has sought to insert himself back on the world stage. He said he is working to get Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza to be released and had a “very good talk” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But on Monday he seemed to buffer expectations about his promise to solve the Russia-Ukraine war even before taking office, describing the conflict as a “tough one” and a “nasty one.”
“We are trying to get that war stopped, that horrible, horrible war” he said. “It’s a tough one. It’s a nasty one. It’s nasty. People are being killed at levels that nobody’s ever seen.”
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is Europe’s biggest armed conflict since World War II and has cost tens of thousands of lives on both sides.
Trump declined to say whether he’s spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin since winning the election. He met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris this month when he visited for the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral.
Trump’s incoming press secretary has said that Trump invited Chinese leader Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his Jan. 20 inauguration, but Trump said Monday that Zelensky was not among them. “If he’d like to come, I’d like to have him,” Trump said.
Trump said Xi has not yet said whether he is coming. He described the Chinese leader as “a friend of mine” and “an amazing guy” but acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected their relationship.
“It was a bridge too far for me,” he said.
 

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Monday a deal enabling the transit of Russian gas through his country would not be extended beyond the end of the year, as some European countries stepped up their search for needed supplies.
Shmyhal, writing on the Telegram messaging app after speaking to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, said Ukraine was willing to discuss transit of gas of any origin except Russian.
“To this effect, if the European Commission officially approaches Ukraine about the transit of any gas other than Russian, we naturally will discuss it and are ready to reach an appropriate agreement,” Shmyhal said.
“I stressed that Ukraine’s agreement with Russia on gas transit comes to an end on 1st January 2025 and will not be extended.”
Shmyhal said much had already been done over the past year to ensure a sufficient supply of energy, particularly gas, to EU countries.
Ukraine, locked in a 33-month-old war with Russia, has said for months that it was unlikely the gas transit contract would be extended.
Slovakia and other countries receiving gas from Russia, transited via pipelines in Ukraine, are in talks to try to avoid those flows stopping when the agreement runs out.
Before the two prime ministers spoke, Fico had said that maintaining gas transit was not just a bilateral matter for Ukraine’s neighbors but an issue for the whole EU.
Fico said last week he aimed to secure continued eastern supplies to avoid paying more in transit fees from other suppliers. Slovakia has a long-term contract with Russian giant Gazprom.
Slovakia’s Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said earlier in Brussels that European countries and companies had a combined demand for around 15 billion cubic meters of Russian gas next year via Ukraine and were in talks to secure new supplies.
Slovakia is hoping a deal could cover gas deliveries for two or three years. The EU has set a target of stopping using Russian fossil fuels by 2027.
Moldova, Ukraine’s small ex-Soviet western neighbor, has also been in talks to secure supplies from Gazprom and, with the expiry of the transit deal imminent, is considering securing Russian gas through Turkiye, Bulgaria and Romania.
Ukrainian officials have said talks have also taken place on exploring the possibility of shipping gas from Azerbaijan to European countries via Ukraine.